Language, I/anguish

slanting sunrays
drift through the window
and settle again
on the worn cover
of my Chinese-English dictionary

tunnelling through my mind
I dig up English words
by lamplight --
Chinese coolie laboring
in a foreign mine

while writing poems
I hear two voices
arguing in their turn:
Conceive in English
Bu! Fan Yi
(Note: No! Translation from Chinese)

Respect English
is whispered into my left ear
Make it new
into my right --
the page remains blank

June 2010 issue of LYNX
anthologized in Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, 3, 2011